<\/p>\n
A woman looks at an apartment building burning after a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 2, 2026.<\/p>\n
Danylo Antoniuk\/AP Photo\/Danylo Antoniuk<\/p>\n
Smoke rises over the city center after a Russian attack on Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 2, 2026.<\/p>\n
Efrem Lukatsky\/AP Photo\/Efrem Lukatsky<\/p>\n
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Kaliningrad Region Governor Alexey Besprozvannykh in Moscow, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)<\/p>\n
Gavriil Grigorov\/Gavriil Grigorov\/Pool Sputnik Kr<\/p>\n
Cars line up at a Lukoil gas station in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, June 30, 2026.<\/p>\n
Alexander Zemlianichenko\/AP Photo\/Alexander Zemlianichenk<\/p>\n
A man reacts at the site of a Russian missile strike that hit a residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 2, 2026.<\/p>\n
Efrem Lukatsky\/AP Photo\/Efrem Lukatsky<\/p>\n
Despite severe fuel shortages across Russia, President Vladimir Putin appears unbothered by Ukraine\u2019s increasing attacks on his country\u2019s oil refineries.<\/p>\n
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He has shrugged off the setback for one of the world\u2019s leading oil-producing nations as \u201cnot critical,\u201d dismissed ceasefire proposals and insisted the war will continue until his goals are met.<\/p>\n
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Putin has described the attacks on Russian energy as an effort by Ukraine to distract attention from its losses on the battlefield, although analysts say the advance of Russian forces has been stymied in recent months. The Russian leader appears to believe his government can keep the fuel crisis from eroding his authority and support for the war he launched more than four years ago.<\/p>\n
The Russian military unleashed a massive 11-hour barrage on the Ukrainian capital overnight into Thursday morning that killed at least 30 people. It was one of the deadliest attacks on Kyiv since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.<\/p>\n
Here’s a deeper look at the latest exchange of strikes and Putin\u2019s refusal to halt the fighting:<\/p>\n
Gas shortages worsen in Russia as more oil facilities are hit<\/p>\n
There have been more than 50 reported Ukrainian attacks on oil refineries and other energy facilities in Russia and occupied Crimea since March \u2014 a barrage Ukrainian leaders have said is intended to pressure Moscow to end the war.<\/p>\n
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At the very least, the attacks have brought the war home even more poignantly for millions of Russians, shattering Putin\u2019s narrative of the conflict as something that doesn\u2019t affect the lives of ordinary people in his country.<\/p>\n
An estimated one-third of Russia\u2019s refining capacity has been cut off, according to Chris Weafer, CEO of the consultancy Macro-Advisory. The attacks have inflicted lasting damage that will be costly to fix.<\/p>\n
Despite significant air defenses protecting Russia’s capital, a top refinery in Moscow has been hit twice. The second strike on June 18 set it ablaze, damaging key equipment that will reportedly take until the end of the year to repair.<\/p>\n
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With gasoline production in Russia reduced by roughly 17% to 850,000 barrels a day, according to government statistics, rationing has been introduced in many regions, and motorists have had to wait in line for hours to refuel.<\/p>\n
Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014, has faced the worst fuel shortages. Gasoline sales to individuals have been periodically halted there altogether.<\/p>\n
Putin downplays the impact of Ukrainian strikes<\/p>\n
Putin chaired a meeting of government officials last weekend to discuss the fuel shortages.<\/p>\n
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In televised statements, he acknowledged the country was going through a \u201cdifficult period.\u201d He pledged to accelerate repairs of energy facilities and said Russia would consider importing gasoline to help make up for what he described as \u201ctemporary\u201d shortages. He also said Russia’s arms industry will boost production of air defense systems to fend off future Ukrainian attacks.<\/p>\n
Putin portrayed the Ukrainian strikes as an attempt to divide Russian society, halt Moscow’s offensive and try to force the Kremlin into negotiations on \u201cterms advantageous to our adversary.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will not give them that chance,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
While Putin said Ukraine’s long-range strikes on Russian oil facilities \u201chave absolutely no effect on the situation at the front,\u201d Western military analysts say mid-range strikes on the Russian army in recent months have hampered military logistics and slowed the tempo of its advance, leaving the battlefield in a stalemate.<\/p>\n
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Putin claims Russian forces are still advancing across the roughly 1,000 kilometer-long (620 mile-long) front line. In an interview last weekend with state TV, Putin mentioned the names of small villages and even streets in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Putin dismisses Ukraine’s ceasefire offers<\/p>\n
The Russian president has responded to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s offer to meet by challenging him to come to Moscow, a non-starter to Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Putin has rejected a truce that Kyiv and its Western allies have proposed. He says it would only give Ukrainian forces time to rest and regroup.<\/p>\n
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He has made any ceasefire conditional on Ukraine’s withdrawal from the part of the Donetsk region it still controls, a demand rejected by Ukraine. Putin has said that a final peace deal must oblige Ukraine to abandon its bid to join NATO, reduce its military and protect Russian language and culture.<\/p>\n
In last Sunday’s interview, Putin claimed that Ukraine had offered to limit the fighting to the four regions that Russia annexed but never fully captured: Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. He said he rejected the proposal because it would free up Ukrainian forces from other areas where Russian troops have made inroads and let them focus on fending off the Russian attacks in the four southeastern regions.<\/p>\n
\u201cFaced with a catastrophic shortage of personnel, the armed forces of Ukraine apparently believe this could be their salvation,\u201d Putin said. \u201cSaving the Kyiv regime is not part of our plans.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Kremlin said the offer was made via confidential channels; Ukrainian officials have not publicly discussed any such proposal.<\/p>\n
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Putin also dismissed a Ukrainian proposal to mutually halt strikes deep into each other’s territory. Russian attacks deep into Ukraine are \u201cmuch more powerful, sensitive and, frankly speaking, destructive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In Thursday’s deadly barrage on Kyiv, Russia once again hit residential areas even as it claimed to be targeting military sites. By contrast, the vast majority of Ukrainian strikes in Russia have hit oil facilities, weapons factories and other military targets.<\/p>\n
A United Nations tally says more than 16,000 Ukrainian civilians have died in the war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A woman looks at an apartment building burning after a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[126863,88434,23681,59373,84874,59371,84875,86159,61262,35711,127809,82,84,83,10487,88437,90305],"class_list":["post-359712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-chris-weafer","tag-kyiv","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","tag-product-30597-ap-business-news-f-wire","tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","tag-product-31995-ap-online-general-financial-business-news","tag-product-32502-ap-online-europe-news","tag-product-46986-ap-online-top-stories","tag-russia","tag-russia-ukraine-war-putin-attacks-fuel-refineries","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-ukraine","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}